 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Welding advice needed please! |
 
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| Crafty1980 Member Since: 21 Jul 2014 Location: Norfolk Posts: 74  
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So, was in the shed today welding up some angle for yet another pie in the sky project... as one does on a Saturday!
I use my dad's old (very old!) stick welder and it frustrates me somewhat. Even though I took myself off to welding evening classes a while back to learn how to weld with stick, the dials etc on dad's welder are so bad that I have very little control over power etc so inevitably end up with snotty welds 50% of the time! Enough was enough today... I reached for the machine mart catalogue and started looking at MIG welders. Surprised at how cheap they seemed to be AND that you can get gasless ones?!? What's that all about?? Also, are the cheap ones worth looking at for a "hobbiest" welder like the descriptions say?! Even the high end "hobbiest" ones seem on paper to be able to cope with any thickness metal that I'd work with... AND ANOTHER THING...MIG can now be used for stainless and aluminium?!?! Surely not?!? I thought that was still TIG territory?!? Any hints/advice greatly received! |
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14th Sep 2014 12:13am |
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| muddybaldboy Member Since: 09 Apr 2012 Location: Ruthin Posts: 395  
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I'd steer clear of the gasless variety.
I'd also take the dimensions quoted (thickness) as an absolute maximum not what your regularly welding. He who dies with the most toys...wins! |
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14th Sep 2014 8:15am |
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| AndrewS Member Since: 10 Apr 2007 Location: Hereford Posts: 3709 
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Get the best you can afford.
You can weld Ally and SS with a MIG Contact these guys they are very knowable and will point you in the right direction, they may even have a second hand professional welder for sale. Ask for Mark or Dave  |
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14th Sep 2014 8:15am |
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| Jonno1968 Member Since: 24 Oct 2013 Location: Leicestershire Posts: 245 
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I have one that i used once. Plan was to build a trailer but after adding up the cost of all the stuff i didnt bother. Its sat in my garage having been used once for a practice weld. Happy to agree a price to save me messing about on e bay. Send me a PM if you are interested and i can send some pics. Its wkth gas btw.
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14th Sep 2014 8:25am |
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347 
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Avoid gassless welders they are very temperamental and if you want to do thick stuff they can't supply the heat.
They work by putting a powder in the core of the weld, so its like big cored flux, but it is very temperamental and only really any good for thin sheet metal. Go for a good gas mig, for gas I use a company called Hobbyweld which is brilliant. You get the bottle rented to you for £60 as a deposit plus the gas which is around £30, then when empty (which takes ages unless your girlfriends leaves the bottle open overnight  ) you take it back and its only £30 to refill and if you want to give it back all together you get your deposit back on the bottle. |
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14th Sep 2014 8:33am |
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| ken Member Since: 18 Aug 2009 Location: Banging Birds with my bitches !! Posts: 4328
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What do you know about welding then  
Joking aside I'd ask the nutter who welds live gas mains for a living you know who you are . |
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14th Sep 2014 9:26am |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971 
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For a relatively low cost welder I would personally go with a decent inverter-based stick welder.
I've used a mate's cheap gasless MIG and it was pretty terrible. At work we've got a fairly big Migatronic 3 phase MIG that we use for both stainless and mild which is really nice to use but would be complete overkill for a garage. We've also got a big, old, oil-cooled stick welder which I've never used but only really gets wheeled out for using up some old hard facing rods that we had before we found we could hard face stuff with the MIG. My favourite of our welders is a Fronius Transpocket 1500 MMA/TIG welder and it's an absolute joy to use. Runs off a normal 13A socket and does a really good job. It's light, easy to transport anywhere and just works. I've used a SIP transformer stick welder, which is relatively good as buzz-boxes go and the difference is night and day. The Fronius I can just pick up and do a good job, the SIP (before we sold it) you could get a decent weld but you really had to concentrate and a good proportion of the welds I did with it were embarrassingly bad. With the Migatronic and the Fronius that never happens and I get consistently good welds unless I've forgotten to turn the gas on the MIG 
Given as you're from Norfolk, give http://www.miganglia.co.uk/ a call. We don't tend to get our consumables from them, but have had great service from them. The Migatronic, Fronius and our Hypertherm plasma cutter all came form them. The plasma was second hand and we were pleased with the price we paid for it. Called up one day, discussed what we wanted, came to an agreement on price, a guy came the next day to drop it off and explain how it all worked. Whilst you're at it, get a good auto-darkening helmet. They make a *huge* difference. |
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14th Sep 2014 12:26pm |
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| grizz Member Since: 31 Aug 2014 Location: cheshire Posts: 208 
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Get a 160-185 amp mig ..
The bigger the better tbh .. Avoid gas less , For good clean welds your'll need argoshield or cougar 5 or a argon mix. 0.6mm wire is ok , 0.8 better for thicker plate . |
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14th Sep 2014 12:33pm |
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| munch90 Member Since: 26 Oct 2013 Location: guildford Posts: 3558 
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Inverter welders has stepless adjustment . So much more varible . If you want a mig then inverter is the way but they are expensive . Kemppi are very good but pricy
inverter arc sticka are good . Same stepless adjustment With inverters you dont seem to get the big arc when you first strike a arc so dont seem to blows holes as much |
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14th Sep 2014 4:12pm |
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| Crafty1980 Member Since: 21 Jul 2014 Location: Norfolk Posts: 74
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Woah! Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated.
I will do some more research!  |
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15th Sep 2014 9:18am |
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| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
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Whatever you do......DON'T do it!
Oops misread it as 'wedding advice!'  If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!!
Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
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15th Sep 2014 9:20am |
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| Anderzander Member Since: 08 Feb 2011 Location: Lancashire Posts: 1000
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Brilliant resource for it here : http://www.mig-welding.co.uk
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15th Sep 2014 9:35am |
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| Crafty1980 Member Since: 21 Jul 2014 Location: Norfolk Posts: 74
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LOL Best response EVER! |
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15th Sep 2014 9:37am |
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| Joe the Plumber Member Since: 18 Dec 2013 Location: Midlands Posts: 921 
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I've had an ArcTec 200 Mig since 1990 and it's wonderful. They went out of business years back, but if you can find a single phase one on eBay, I'd buy it.
This is a 3 phase example to show you the make: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arc-Tec-350-Mig-...27db9647f0 I hope this is of interest. |
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15th Sep 2014 8:56pm |
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